Auditors Probe Processing, Collection Of County Bus Fares

January 10, 1986|By Jon Marcus, Staff Writer

County auditors are investigating how $5 million a year in Broward County transit system bus fares have been processed and collected.

The system`s accounting depends, in part, on figures written by hand by drivers who must read the meter on a sophisticated farebox. The chief of the county`s auditing division said his staff may recommend a change in the processing procedure.

Transit division director Joel Volinski said there are discrepancies between the written and actual fare totals almost every day when the quarters, dimes and nickels have been counted. But he said those differences are slight.

``You`re dealing with people writing figures down, punching into calculators. It`s always going to be the case that there are disparities,`` Volinski said.

He said he was not aware there was an audit under way. ``If there`s something in the procedure we should change, I don`t know about it,`` Volinski said.

H. Dean Yow, the county`s director of management services, said the audit was ordered routinely on Sept. 16 and may include recommendations for changes in the fare procedures. Leonard Pocock, the auditor in the case, would not discuss it.

Passengers pay 50 cents each and 10 cents for a transfer. But because of complicated discount and pass programs, the county collects an average 35 1/2 cents per person.

Fares were $4.9 million last year and will account for at least $5.3 million this year, almost a quarter of the system`s $24.4 million operating budget.

They will become increasingly important as federal funds for transit operations continue to decline. Federal operating assistance fell 20 percent from $5.5 million last year to $4.4 million this year. And county tax dollars for transit have increased from $700,000 in 1984 to $4.8 million this year.